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This study investigated the functions of family support in older Chinese Singaporean women's daily health management in a Confucian cultural context, wherein family solidarity and women's caregiving responsibilities are emphasized. Thirty-eight interviews were conducted with ethnic Chinese women above the age of 60 in Singapore. Our thematic analysis showed that older women played dual roles as support providers and recipients in the family. Their caregiver identity and intent to preserve tradition resulted in a downward transmission of informational and physical support and their hesitance to accept resources provided by younger family members. The asymmetrical flow of family support generated mixed impacts on the women's daily health management. In their transition between tradition and modernity, older women fulfilled their family responsibilities but did not require their children to do so. Our findings suggested an integration of familial and institutional resources to meet older women's support needs and help them enhance their health behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information behavior includes activities of active information seeking, passive acquisition of information, and information use. Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study explored elderly Singaporean women’s health information behavior to understand how they sought, evaluated, and used health information in everyday lives. Twenty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with elderly Chinese women aged 61 to 79. Qualitative analysis of the interview data yielded three meta-themes: information-seeking patterns, trustworthiness of health information, and peripheral route of decision making. Results revealed that elderly women took both systematic and heuristic approaches to processing information but relied on interpersonal networks to negotiate health choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]